Aksarben ARS

Won't honor the Angie List coupon. I won't be using them in the future.

I received a call from Aksarben this morning (as well as reminder call of our appointment yesterday) to advise me that a tech was on his way. In about about 20 minutes the tech arrived with a smile and business card in hand. He was very friendly, courteous and professional. After introductions, he explained all the steps he needed to do and encouraged my presence and any questions. He explained thoroughly all pertinent steps and showed me issues with both the furnace and a/c unit (19 & 16 years old respectively). My husband and I knew there was a possibility for replacement for one or the other soon and after the tech showed me critical points on both, it became quickly apparent we need to replace the a/c unit. He showed me how the compressor was fluctuating between the the red (bad) to yellow (caution) zones as well as the capacitors condition was operating at 45.3 when the lowest should be at 47. There were other critical factors that he showed me which helped me understand what was going on with the unit. He also set up a call to arrange an with a comfort advisor for a free consultation on replacing our a/c unit. While it is undecided if we will purchase an a/c unit with Aksarben, they certainly have amazing customer service all the way around.

My parent's installed a water source heat pump for an astounding $15,000. It broke yearly and they paid thousands more trying to fix it. We bought my parents house and our first summer there, the air conditioning did not work. Aksarben came out and said they fixed it for another $500+. It broke within days. They came one more time and still no air conditioning. I called and tried to work out a deal, but got no response. The system was so poorly done that the PVC pipes the water went through melted (yes, shockingly, melted). I had several other companies come and try to fix it, but the entire system was installed so wrong that it appears to be a total loss. Also, prior to this, I was getting new furnace bids for our previous house. Aksarben's bids were double the other companies.

Install was on time with a professional job.

DO NOT USE FOR PLUMBING. I have been an Aksarben annual service agreement customer for 12 years. I have always found the technicians that check my heater and air conditioner to be knowledgeable and fair. Every now and then they do the "hard sell" for additional products (e.g., carbon monoxide monitor), but nothing over the top. Last year, when renewing my annual heating/air agreement, I decided to add their plumbing option. As we were preparing to sell our house this spring, our agent suggested replacing the two-tone (gold/silver) faucets in our master bathroom for something more modern. Bought two new faucets at Lowes and called Aksarben to have a plumber come install them. This is existing plumbing - you turn off the water, pull out what is there, and install the new ones. My wife said the technician was here for 75 minutes - 15 of that was his doing paperwork. When he handed my wife the paperwork, he said that the cost of replacing the two faucets was $436. Including paperwork time, this works out to $350 PER HOUR. My wife, not knowing better, wrote a check. The following day, I left messages with the plumbing manager. After some phone tag, we were able to talk. The delay was good since it gave me time to calm down. The manager explained that their price is per installation item and is not based on time to do the item. Hence, the first faucet installation was $200 and the second $180. I did not even think to ask when setting up the appointment since I assumed it would be an hourly rate - $120 for the whole job. The technician did not even wipe the sinks after installation. On top of that, they charged me $13 for taking away my two faucets - the technician did not offer to my wife to put them in our trash. Overall, I feel absolutely cheated and swindled and told this to the manager. The manager agreed that the technician should have told my wife about the cost ahead of time. He indicated he would give me a 10% refund (though as a service customer, I am entitled to a 10% discount which I don't think was originally applied). To his credit, he did get me a check the following week. As such, my cost came down to $390. As a result of this incident, I will not be renewing my annual agreement with them and will suggest you do not use their plumbing services unless the costs are outlined ahead of time.

It went well. Did a great job. I was expecting it to be a little bit expensive so was not surprised. He was here for the afternoon, and finally finished up around 5:30 p.m.

Great work by repairman, gave pointers on how to maintain equipment.

Cost was covered in the annual contract for a/c and furnace.

Wonderful company to work with. Good work and very nice people.

We've been using Aksarben for about 2 years now with their home maintenance plan. I think it's time to look elsewhere. It seems like at each seasonal checkup there is some majorly expensive work to be done. We are also encouraged to make some repairs when the test is showing the equipment to be performing within acceptable parameters. I feel like each time I'm getting the hard sell. I’m sure some of it is needed and we do agree to some things.

After researching online and trying to trouble shoot the problem on my own, I decided the thermocouple was shot because the pilot wouldn't stay lit. I wanted to confirm my theory, therefore I had Aksarben come over to take a look. They told me there would be a $39 service fee for coming over, which was fine. It took the technician about 2 minutes to determine that was the problem. Prior to his arrival I called multiple plumbing companies to see what they charged to replace a thermocouple....and the going rate was $115-$135 all of which included cleaning as well, and no service charge just for showing up. Well the technician pulled out his book and told me the fee would be $275 plus the $39 service call, for a total of $314!! I told him thanks, but no thanks! Funny thing was, he agreed that I should have the service done elsewhere. You could tell he thought their rates were out of control, but clearly couldn't do anything about it. His helpfulness is the only reason I'm not giving Aksarben an F rating. If you ever use them, I would strongly recommend you call around, as it seems they are entirely overpriced.

They were prompt to contact me and the servicemen were polite and performed quality work. However the work was expensive. They did some cabling for my drain and it was at $229, and when I asked about the pricing they informed me that it was the flat rate for that particular service.

It is still on going, because I have a one-year contract with them. They are okay. They have met my expectations. They are average. I will continue to use them.

I got an A/C system check from Aksarben in May 2013. I have 2 A/C units for the house so this service cost $124.00 total. I was informed one of the A/C units was only 80% filled with Freon, and it was probably filled incorrectly when installed. This made sense as the upstairs always seemed harder to cool in the summer. My problem began about 2 months later when I electrical bill skyrocketed. My average kilowatt usage literally went from 31 per month to 63 per month. This kilowatt use rate stayed high until the end of the air-conditioning season. After the A/C season my monthly usage dropped down to 20 kilowatts. That's when I determined there was a leak. Aksarben came out to my house and agreed I have a refrigerant charge. Their solution was to charge me $1,500.00 (minimum) to find & fix the leak, or I could expect to pay about $6,000.00 for a new A/C unit. There is a high likelihood Aksarben caused my leak during their discounted A/C system check. I will need to get a new A/C unit, but I will go elsewhere.

This part went well. HOWEVER, they said I needed a new HVAC System to the tune of $9000. They said it was on its last leg and could go at any minute. When I got a second and third opinion, I was told nothing was wrong with my furnace and AC. That has been over 2 years ago and there is still nothing wrong with my HVAC System. Lots of pressure was put on me to replace it and just a side note, my husband was working out of town at the time and I felt very vulnerable.

Our water heater had rusted through the tank. I bought a new 50 gallon water heater at Home Depot and paid to have it installed. Aksarben was contracted to install the appliance. When they arrived the told me I needed a direct vent water heater and that was not what I had purchased. No stores locally had them available but the technician said he could install one for us at a cost of $1900. After installation the water heater was leaking water all over the floor. When the technician came to fix it they said I had to install a pressure relief valve at a cost of $250. There was no mention of this potential problem or associated cost when we agreed to install the insanely expensive water heater the previous day. Within one year the water heater stopped heating water. I called Aksarben since it should be under warranty. I had to pay an additional $200 to clean the ignition switch. Again the same problem within a year, no hot water. I discussed the situation with a manager at Aksarben who said that there was no defect with the water heater. He could send a technician to soak us for more money. We went to YouTube and found a video instructing how to clean it ourselves. We probably will have to clean the ignition annually but at least we won't have to pay Aksarben anymore money.

Each service call has been prompt, courteous and reasonably priced for the services provided.

Generally, this "system check" seemed designed to try to find problems so that he could try to sell me a new furnace. It doesn't appear that they made any adjustments or cleaned the unit. The first comment the tech (Michael B.) made was that I had a furnace that was difficult to work on. Maybe they don't teach their technicians to work on Lennox units, which are used by a lot of people. As he was taking the unit apart he threw the screws into a container with about 100 other screws in it. I guess it didn't matter if he replaced the screws he took out with the original ones or ones from someone else's unit. Now that I think about it, those screws probably came from somebody else's unit that he just didn't replace. He found a very small crack in the heat exchanger, which I observed as well so their practice is to call a second tech to verify it. The second tech showed up and asked the first tech why he hadn't removed the burners. The first tech essentially said "it was too hard." The second tech also observed the crack and left (he was much more professional than the tech doing the job). I signed some paperwork indicating I knew the heat exchanger was cracked and the tech was supposed to reassemble the furnace and put it back in working order. The cracks were very minor and the fire box of a furnace operates at a slightly negative pressure while the air the furnace circulates into your house is at a slightly positive pressure so I wasn't too worried about carbon monoxide poisoning despite the techs effort to convince me this was an emergency. He tried to convince me that he didn't feel comfortable leaving unless I made an appointment to have someone come out and discuss all my options (i.e., buy a new furnace from them). Finally I agreed to and low and behold the lady on the phone said they could get someone out that very day (it was late afternoon). I told her a week was the soonest I could meet with them. Fast forward, two days later (Sunday, November 17, 2013). I keep my house on the cool side and hadn't really paid any attention to if the furnace was working. Well, I turned up the heat and low and behold it's not. Called Aksarben and was told by the on call Tech that they don't work on furnaces with cracked heat exchangers. Anyway he had me go through some trouble shooting procedures over the phone, which did not work. I do think he gave it his best effort. Finally towards the end of that exercise, I notice a bracket laying inside the furnace and a loose screw. See pictures. I don't think the first tech did anything except try to find a cracked heat exchanger so they could sell me a new furnace. November 19, 2013 Update The tech I talked to on the phone Sunday showed up to find out why my furnace wasn't working. He found a rag that the first tech had stuffed in the blower motor that kept the blower from running. He also found that the first tech hadn't plugged in a control plug. See service ticket that I've attached. This certainly wasn't good on the blower motor to get start demands yet be unable to run because a rag was stuffed in the fan. Anyway, I called Monday to ask for my money back and was told they would take the price of the "System Check" off the price if I purchased a furnace from them. I'm quite sure they knew their isn't a snow ball's chance in h*** that I will do that. STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS! Angies list has many other HVAC companies that will do a good job but not this one.

It didn't go well. I bought the coupon for a tune up. He did nothing to make sure my furnace would perform better. I will be calling into the office better. A tune up has adjustments. Some parts that they wanted us to buy because they weren't getting great readings could have been adjusted and cleaned to be better. I am displeased that I paid $60 for nothing. Now I am going to have to pay more to have them or someone else come out to actually perform the service on the furnace. They had great customer service and were prompt and were able to get me in quickly.

I have used Aksarben over the last year. I had a great experience with them about a year ago. Although they tend to be pricey, but I was willing to pay extra for a good reliable service. But lately the problem has been poor customer service. I called to fix a poor airflow to one of the room, and to replace an air pump. First an Aksarben technician comes and tells my wife there is nothing wrong, so I call again, and another technician comes and diagnoses and fixes the problem, but he says airflow is a separate department, but he will report it and someone will call us. No one calls for 2 weeks. We call back and explain that it is an airflow problem and we need someone specializes in that to come. But we get a teacnician who does not do airflow ( this is the third visit now). Teacnician leaves a message for airflow specialist, who was supposed to call back, but we got no phone call. I called again the company, and finally they send the right person for the right job ( and I thought our troubles are over), BUT he arrives with no ladder in the truck !!! Although we mentioned that we have a ladder in the garage, but he said that he will come back with his equipments. That was 10 days ago, and we never heard back from him since. I just think that this company have so many departments, with poor communications among different departments. I also think that the different technicians, for some unexplainable reason, are not interested in providing services.

Went very well. Very thorough. Called when he was on his way. Was here for over an hour.

It went fine . Called because I received coupon in the mail. $57.00 for furnace check. Our furnace is 13 years old so I' m not shocked that something had to be replaced. Tech was very thorough. Came at 2:30 and left at 4:45. Did not have part so had to order. Two days later came back. Took 10 to 15 minutes to complete.

First the company refused to give me an estimate over the phone for the work I wanted done - even though I described the type of faucets I had. Then when the worker arrived - the price was completely outrageous. $300 to replace 1 faucet and $100 for each additional faucet. I was anxious to have the work done & for some insane reason agreed to the price. It took him less than 90 minutes to perform all 3 replacements. While he was working I looked in his price book - they charge $700 for labor only to replace a kitchen sink!!!! A few years back - I had my sink replaced for $125.00 (just labor). They need to re-think the prices they charge. While the work he did was okay - I will never use that company again for any service. And I will not talk to any company that refuses to give me at least a price range of the cost of repairs - for work to be done. My faucets only cost me $150 for all 3 so $500 to install them seems outrageous to me.

They came when scheduled and were very pleasant. Did a very thorough job. Very clean and fast.

The man who came to service the furnace came up and told me that my water heater was leaking. He asked if I wanted to get someone out there right away. They had someone out there within 45 minutes. After they completed the work, I realized they had accidently damaged the door where the heater was. I called them and let them know and they came right out and fixed it within the week.